What happens to "+= operator" when its assigned to a empty list in python?

Question

results=[]
for x in range(5):
    results += '$' 
print(results)

output : ['$', '$', '$', '$', '$']

This code behaves differently from typical += operator. As you can see here it has generated a list with the $ string inside it.

It's not equal to what we think results = results + '$'. This code will throw you an error.

Can you describe what is going on this code?

The output clearly shows what happens when you use `+=` with a list and a string... If you want a more detailed explanation, a quick search on google reveals [this](https://www.codecademy.com/forum_questions/559a2e9576b8fec400000392) — kenntnisse, Apr 21 '22 at 03:26

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 21 '22 at 03:29

1

In lists, += is equivalent to .extend(). Since a string is an iterable, this works.

+ however is only defined to allow combining 2 lists together.

answered Apr 21 '22 at 03:29

Bharel

1 Answers1